Their number and success are evidences of the lively interest taken
by the present generation here in its native literature.
Australia has now come of age, and is becoming conscious
of its strength and its possibilities. Its writers to-day are, as a rule,
self-reliant and hopeful. They have faith in their own country;
they write of it as they see it, and of their work and their joys and fears,
in simple, direct language. It may be that none of it is poetry
in the grand manner, and that some of it is lacking in technical finish;
but it is a vivid and faithful portrayal of Australia, and its ruggedness
is in character. It is hoped that this selection from the verse that has been
written up to the present time will be found a not unworthy contribution
to the great literature of the English-speaking peoples.
William Charles Wentworth.
Australasia
Celestial poesy! whose genial sway
Earth's furthest habitable shores obey;
Whose inspirations shed their sacred light,
Far as the regions of the Arctic night,
And to the Laplander his Boreal gleam
Endear not less than Phoebus' brighter beam, --
Descend thou also on my native land,
And on some mountain-summit take thy stand;
Thence issuing soon a purer font be seen
Than charmed Castalia or famed Hippocrene;
And there a richer, nobler fane arise,
Than on Parnassus met the adoring eyes.
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